I booked a trip to London to see Jennie Abrahamson, then found out that Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers of XTC had organised a run of performances as ‘TC&I’ the same week. A detour to Swindon the next day was essential then and I was fortunate enough to get a ticket, perfectly placed right near the front centre too, couldn’t believe my luck!

XTC stopped touring in 1982, shortly after I saw them in 1981, though they continued recording until 2006. The world had their wonderful music but was deprived of live performance due to Andy Partridge’s issues. Well to get half the band live after so long was more than enough to get XTC fanatics like me racing to Swindon from all round the Globe to hear many of the songs Colin wrote and sang for XTC. We were all bursting with excitement and the show lived up to our expectations, and more!

Colin is still in fine voice and his signature bass lines flowed effortlessly in his brilliantly understated way. After so many years away from the kit Terry bashes those drums just as powerfully and precisely as ever and the other band members played their parts perfectly, bravo! What an extensive set too. A pretty comprehensive tour through Colin’s XTC songs as well as recent TC&I recordings. In the ‘Arts Centre’ environment, I felt the volume was respectful and the sound a bit polite, so they couldn’t ‘rock out’ as massively as I would have liked … but fair enough, they (and the audience, ahem) are getting on a bit so that’s a very minor quibble. I sang along at the top of my voice to compensate!

I sat next to a lovely couple from Surrey, the nicest people, and like many XTC fans at such get togethers we made friends and will keep in touch. Got to meet Colin and Terry afterwards, shake their hands, quick pic (thanks Owen) and thank them for the music … very gracious guys if not terribly comfortable in the situation. Floated back to Edinburgh stupidly happy!